F1 Talk: What did we Learn from Pre-season Testing?

Following on from last week’s round up of the first week of pre-season testing, we got a clearer indication of what the pecking order looks like and what we can expect from the 2019 Formula One season.

As always, testing is hard to read with varying fuel levels, engine modes, track conditions and the teams not pushing to their absolute maximum.

The race runs tell much more of a story than the one lap pace which we will only discover in the first few Grand Prix in Australia, Bahrain and China.

Ferrari Quickest?

I believe so, but not my much. Their race simulations look excellent with Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc both lapping in the 1:21s whilst Mercedes and Red Bull in the 1:22s. That was on the medium tyre (or C2 as it was called in testing). On the C3 tyres prospects were a bit tighter, but Ferrari still had the edge. It seems any inter-team politics over the winter break hasn’t affected the car.

Mercedes Struggling?

That was the talk of the first four days of testing but things look much better for the defending champions. It seems to be very similar to races like Canada and Germany last year where Mercedes are just a quarter of a second off the pace of Ferrari but we know how good they ended up being come the end of the year. I do think that the talk of them struggling is nonsense and Hamilton saying that they are 0.5 behind Ferrari is completely untrue. The car may again have a narrower operating window compared to the Ferrari and Red Bull but everyone has only tested at one track so its far too early to say that.

Red Bull-Honda off too a brilliant start

Their exciting new partnership has started very well with Honda, using just two engines with Red Bull across all eight days of testing. The change was due to Honda wanting to test some small upgrades. The Honda power unit has proven to be reliable and even though we don’t know how far the engines are turned up, from what Red Bull have said – there is a considerable increase of power from last year. I think Red Bull are still a few tenths off Ferrari and will start the season as third best team at worst, but we know that they can develop very well and they will definitely be challenging for wins this season.

Are the Midfield really closer?

It appears that way with Haas having a strong second week of testing in particular, with McLaren, Renault and Alfa Romeo looking strong too. Even in free practice sessions we see that the midfield teams are closer to the front three than before, but come qualifying and the race, they suddenly have nothing left to give and find themselves over a second off the pace and a lap down come the chequered flag.

Logic indicates that the whole field should start closing up as we come to the end of a set of regulations, look at 2012 and 2013. As much as I would love to see eight teams within a second of each other, the reality is that there is still a decent gap and unfortunately the number of different drivers we see on the podium will be similar to last year. Hopefully, I am wrong.

Who is heading the ‘Best of the Rest?’

Without sitting on the fence, it’s still extraordinarily close in the midfield. Haas impressed me last week, especially with the race stints. One of Kevin Magnussen’s stints on the C2 tyres was very close to Charles Leclerc’s on the same tyres. Again, we don’t know about the fuel loads etc. and how far the engine was turned up but it seems as if Haas are right towards the pointy end of the midfield.

Renault on the other hand, largely expected to lead the midfield and close the gap to the big teams, had very poor race simulations. They showed nothing special in the second week of testing and that is a concern for me. That said, I think they are running under the radar a little so it would not surprise me to seem them just inside the Top 10.

The Ferrari engine is strong

Going off Ferrari’s pace, the speed of the Haas and the newly named Alfa Romeo team, it is safe to say that the Ferrari engine is the benchmark. Whatever they found in the middle of 2018 is still giving them a healthy advantage over the rest of the engine manufacturers and that is worrying for the seven teams without a Ferrari power unit. I think this will be a talking point during the season.

What about McLaren?

They are in the midfield scrap and I expect them to have good development with the arrival of James Key and what looks like a good baseline from what I could see visually on the MCL34. It looks as if McLaren are thereabouts with Renault, a good sign as they have the same power unit. There was a lot of aerodynamic testing with a huge amount of work into verifying the performance characteristics of the car which meant the team didn’t do as many long runs as other teams but McLaren fans should be optimistic.

Williams bring up the back

Its a sad site to see Williams bringing up the rear, but they look like they are well off. Of course, we will see how far away Williams are from the rest of the field after a few races but it does not look like it will be a fun time for George Russell and Robert Kubica as well as the whole team who were hoping for some sort of improvement from a poor 2018.

Renault and Honda have shown it takes a long time and lots of financial resources to get back to the midfield, never mind the front. Williams clearly do not believe in a partnership with a big team and are a complete independent team. They are the last team with this philosophy but, time moves on and it might be time to change that status or else they will not move forward. The pace is just not there and Kubica’s comments and reactions to the media tell a lot.

The Conclusion

Essentially, we have the same three teams at the front:

• Ferrari
• Mercedes
• Red Bull

With five teams fighting for best of the rest:

• Haas
• McLaren
• Alfa Romeo
• Renault
• Toro Rosso

Racing Point look like they are slightly behind this group but should be able to fight with these teams during the race, perhaps not qualifying.

Then, we have Williams who will just have to hope to pick up the pieces in any crazy races as they do not have the pace to even challenge the points paying positions.

All will be revealed in less than two weeks time as F1 2019 roars into action.